>> Tuesday, January 27, 2004

This weekend I read Touched by Fire, by Kathleen O'Reilly, a new-to-me author. I've had it for some time, but it wasn't until someone on one of my lists posted an intriguing comment about the hero that I was motivated to pull it to the top of my TBR pile.

Colin, Earl of Haverwood, a man afraid of his own temper, falls for gentle, breathtaking Sarah. But before he can trust in love, he must trust in himself.

A big disappointment, a C.

Touched by Fire sounded absolutely fascinated. I just loved the idea of the book, especially the idea of the hero, a child of rape, who therefore fears what's inside of him and is afraid to even touch a woman, yet is unbearably tempted by the heroine. Unfortunately, the execution of this idea wasn't good at all. Ok, it sucked.

My main problem was that I couldn't get a handle on the characters' motivations and thought processes. I simply couldn't understand their reasonings, how they came to their conclusions and made their decisions. This meant that I was continuously baffled by the things they did, by the way they swung back and forth in their decisions.